Fishing Junk Water
What started as the sketchiest junk lake turned into something much harder to leave behind
3/20/2026Michelle Jarvie
Fly-fishing
Gradual Untangling
Fly Tying? You want me to tie a fly? No way. I can’t even darn socks. I knew I had enrolled in a fly fishing school, but I never thought about the fly tying aspect that would accompany my studies. School started and there I was, my instructor persuading me to give it a try. Reluctantly I went to the tying area. With a heavy heart, I tried my hand at tying my first fly, and managed to make a large and splendid bug. That disheveled fly went on to startle many fish, but one showed interest; all was
7/20/2018Mari Kitagawa
Oman
Oman … the name alone conjures up images of the desert, sand dunes and camels. This is the place that I now call home and where my husband and I have started our fishing business: Arabian Fly Sport Fishing. Most people’s first reactions are “Oh yeah, I saw the movie Fly Fishing in Yemen. Is it like that?” Well we haven’t built our own river and stocked it with wild salmon, that’s for sure. Our business is saltwater fishing. Oman has over 2000 kilometers of coastline - from rugged, unforgiving cl
6/30/2017Clare Carter King
Wild
Laurentian Great Lakes steelhead are a complex stock of fish. The population is a mixture of hatchery-released and wild, naturally reproduced fish originating from many different streams. Knowing the natal streams of the fish is important to best managing this species, as it allows for targeted conservation and management to the areas that are the major contributors to the total lake population. Fortunately, we may be able to determine the natal stream of a fish by looking at its otolith. Otoli
9/15/2015Nicole Watson
Latest
Mice
Tossing rodent replicas on the water at night, not seeing a bloody thing. Hoping to hear your fly go splat on the water somewhere and not hung up on the bank across stream or snagged in the trees from your back cast. Your other senses are heightened to make up for your lack of vision. Heart pounding, tingling with anticipation, waiting for the electricity of the killing kind to touch your line. Fingers poised, ready to hear a watery explosion on your kabob offering as you swim it back to you
9/15/2015Nome Buckman
Trash
They said, “it’s only trash.” They said, “you’ll never catch anything in there.” They said, “it’s not worth your time.” However, I saw things very differently from the moment I found my first ditch. I walked down a path behind the home where I was living at the time, only to find a fork in a bayou, and what I saw then changed me and started my journey into trashy waters. What I saw was a fish the length of my body. Not knowing what it was at the time, I started doing research on what fish,
9/15/2015Allison Helen Keeble
Gender
Actual Survey Question: Why aren’t there more women in fly-fishing? Actual Answers to this Question: Because they are home making sandwiches. Cause men drool at them. No mirrors to check their make-up. Because there are no toilets. 2 buzy cooking and cleaning. Kids to raise. They should be banned anyways- it’s the only peace we get. They can’t pick out an outfit. Same reason men don’t knit or make jewelry. They don’t like cold water. They don’t like to get their hands dirty. They only like to
9/15/2015Kaitlin Glines Barnhart
Experience
I have been around fishing and the outdoors for my entire life. My dad has been fly fishing for as long as I can remember. When my brother and I turned about eight, our dad started teaching us how to fly fish. We have always adhered to the Catch and Release method. Drake, my brother, is a natural at it. I have been slowly improving my skills to feel confident at the age of 14. I can now cast without getting stuck every other cast, which is pretty awesome. Despite my casting skills, I always h
9/15/2015Annie Jones
Dance
Her hips swayed in opposition to her arms. Hands held just so -- fingers extended, as if accentuating the beat. Head bent. Neck elongated, in contrast to her chin and closed eyes downcast. Gazing past her swaying thighs and knees and feet and toes, pointed just so. To her daughter. The mother was not watching the daughter. The mother was dancing with her pre-teen daughter. And I was a voyeur -- captivated by this innocent couple dancing along side the stage of a outdoor music festival. I was si
9/15/2015Nikki Seeger
Firewater
It’s a relatively cool, cloudy, Sunday in late August. AKA … brewing day. I am a homebrewer - beer, wine, mead and anything in between, even a traditional Finnish drink called Sima, which is a delicious sparkling lemonade. I’ve been waiting for cool weather (and spare time) all summer so I can try out new recipes. I also grew hops this year for the first time, and although they are not quite ready for harvest, I can’t wait to use them. In fact, I planted an entire garden dedicated to brewing
9/15/2015Michelle Jarvie
Da Perch
Using hollow tied buck-tail, schlappen and a peacock eye, this fly moves a lot of water and will get the attention of your favorite toothy critter. Smaller than many modern flies of its type, this fly is easy to cast and produces fish. Dun Magazine ~ Tails and Ties ~ Da Perch from Dun Magazine on Vimeo.
9/15/2015Dun Magazine
Canoes and Cold Hands
Our green Coleman canoe gets some strange looks at the Gallatin River put in. There’s snow in the forecast for the afternoon but for now the sun is out, warming up my waders that hang from the review mirror. We pull the canoe off a cutbank into the small eddy and I eye the sharp fence between upstream and downstream water. “If we tip over here, we just swim back to the car, right?” I say. I’m half joking. The water is winter cold and I really, really don’t want to go for a wader swim. Two men
6/15/2015Emerald Lafortune
The Eagle's Nest
It was late March and my husband, no longer able to resist the call of fishing, had taken us to the Poconos. Like the rest of the residents of the North East we felt the call of spring. We were all tired of the gray days, the snow and the cold. We were seriously wishing for sunshine and warmth and trout. That day, we drove up to the mountains from South Jersey with the promise of temperatures in the 60’s. Even so, there was still snow on the ground, patches of ice on the edges of the streams an
6/15/2015Kathleen Vasinda
The Responsibility
When Josh and I found out we were having a little girl, we both cried tears of Joy. Josh won’t admit that, but I’m telling his secret. I cook his meals and am the mother of his children. He can’t get too mad right? Besides the “She’s never dating”, “She’s never leaving the house” spiel, he said three things to me that day that melted my heart. Through the tears he told me “I really want her to be proud to have me as her father.” “I’m going to work really hard to be the husband to you that s
6/15/2015Lisa Williams
Walk on the Safe Side
"All women are b**ches and liars." Those were the exact words out of an older man’s mouth a few years ago when my partner and I were fishing on a famous Lake Ontario steelhead river. When this man first approached us, thanks to our completely gender-neutral appearance, he just seemed a little jealous that we had been out-fishing him and he wanted us out of “his space,” but when he figured out we were women, he began blurting out a rant about how horrible women were, including his own mother. Thi
6/15/2015Michelle Jarvie
The Art of Angling
My earliest memory is learning how to draw a house with perspective. Since then I’ve been hooked on art of many kinds. From taking courses while I was in college in printmaking, glass forming, pottery and sculpture to fine art, graphic design and jewelry making, art of all kinds has always inspired me. I graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology without the clear sense of personal style that many of my peers had evolved. I could draw anyt
6/15/2015Andrea Larko